NEW: *******Annual Theme Garden Swap 2012********

micyreyOctober 30, 2012

Hello

The theme garden swap is for gardeners that have or want gardens planted with a Theme, fairy garden, angel garden, and so on. Use your imagination when coming up with your gardens and with matching seeds to someones garden.

send by date dec 20th, if this is too short just let me know, I don't want to wait too long as the WLOMWLS will be in jan and I would like gardeners to get their seeds back so they can post seeds still wanted on their want lists.

please don't send seeds older that 2011, we want good viable seeds so we all have a good gardening experiance. I like 20 to 25 seeds per trade but I know the size of acceptible trade has gotten smaller so use your best judgment on trade size.

when you pack your seeds put them in a baggie/envie/piece of paper with all seeds for that person and put their name on it. please dont put their name on the seed bag, they may end up going to someone else. If you send more seeds than you want back just let me know we always have newbees that dont have much to send. if you send hundereds of packs just know I will have to put things not in your themes to fill your envie. I would like US players only, I have trouble with sending to canada and you cant post here, but I wont turn you away if you are willing to take the chance, you would email me your list and I will post it.

I want everyone to have a great experiance with this swap so if you have any questions or concerns just let me know. I will be flexable

One of these themes is from someone's idea last year, but I had to use it because it is right in line with my garden.

1. Coffee and Cream (name of seed or color: cream, brown or both)
2. Getting Some Zzzz's (sleep, rest, or anything beginning with the letter Z)
3. The Voleminator (We have voles that love to eat all the roots of my plant and kill it - trying to grow more things that won't be tasty to them so probably something deer resistent, etc.)
4. Gnome Sweet Gnome (Gnomes roam in my garden. Asking for cute little plants to join them in the garden.)
5. Dutch Treat (plants that remind you of Holland - name, color, etc.)

I would love to sign up. Have never done a theme garden mine is so "hodge podge". Coming up with themes is really hard but here is mine...and probably not so much with a theme but....

1. Short and Sweet (for a terrace that is in full sun)
2. Sedums it shall be (sprinkler doesn't seem to get this area)
3. Wet feet (pond and surrounding area)
4. Down the garden path (shorter varieties)
5. Along the dry creek (shorter varieties also)

1. [I'm late! I'm late I'm late to the party] Between Disney and my memory, this is more of a garble than a quote from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderful. But the sense of it is 1st theme: flowers that are "late" to the garden; that is, that bide their time through summer festivities and then flower until frost. Dahlias, morning glories and sages come to mind.

2. Although I would be grateful for any late-blooming flower, I would also love some late-flowering blues for shade or partial shade. Some examples could be:

I would like to play, but here's the deal - I have gobs of seeds, which I like to share in swaps, but I absolutely do NOT want a lot back - I just wind up feeling guilty if I can't plant them, and seldom have the motivation to figure out creative ways to share them. So here is my theme:

One Singular Sensation - if there was ONE outstanding plant in your garden this year (or last okay too), be it annual, perennial, shrub, vegetable or herb (no full sized - larger than 6' - trees, please) that set seed, I would like from seeds from that. If you haven't been impressed with anything in your garden, that's okay - don't send me anything - I'm not likely to run out of seeds in my lifetime, LOL.

This is always a fun swap - the creativity (and humor) of folks involved makes it great. Thanks for hosting it, Micyrey. :)

4)Don't Bug Me: My grandpa used to plant different flowers with his veggie crops and around his fruit trees...I don't remember what they were but he said they kept bugs away from his crops...1 of them was gladiolias...i know glads are bulbs but was wondering if there were any other flowers maybe that do the same job and are pretty also...

5)Too Pretty To Eat: Edible plants that are beautiful to look at in bloom or flowers that are edible...these can be things like squash that have big beautiful blooms, okra has pretty flowers, or flowers you can eat like clovers and other flowers that can be eaten...

I will keep everyone in order so if you just want to put the players number on their seeds that is fine.

I have a request to move the WLOMWL swap to feb/march, I'm fine with this but it will mean winter sowers will be getting their seeds late. I start planting my seeds in late feb early march esp my vegies like tomatos. I will do what ever you all like.

Michelle, I think I was the one who was asking for extended time for this swap and therefore delaying the WLOM@L. But I noticed Patrob's post elsewhere that for southerners like her, delaying the WLOMWL would interfere with their "winter" sowing - they can't do it later like us "northerners".

Sooooo, don't delay the WLOMWL on my behalf. As for extended time for this swap - might be nice if needed for some of us.

Dawn's not far away - thanks again for doing this swap - Fairies love the blue in shadows,

I would like the seeds for this one to be in before christmas so I can do the sorting wile we are on christmas break( I work at the high school ) but if that is too soon just have them in the mail by the end of the year.

Am beginning to mosey around different kinds of gardens to get ideas for which seed to match to which theme. Thought y'all might like the following link that matches plants to their respective member of lepidoptera, which encompasses both butterflies & moths - http://www.judywoods.dial.pipex.com/plants/associations.html

Before applying myself to the task, I browsed the names, and since we're following faeries and other fey through our garden paths in this theme swap, I couldn't help but notice one plant named for the Goddess Circe (Circe was the enchantress in Homer's Odyssey who turned Homer's crew into pigs).

Another garden-writer/designer extraordinaire was Gertrude Jekyll, and one of her signature flowers was the strongly perfumed Hosta plantaginea grandiflora (Funkia grandiflora in her time).

She writes about it in Colour Schemes for the Garden, which also includes her flower designs so you can see exactly how she implemented her theories about color with flowers. Seehttp://openlibrary.org/search?q=Gertrude+Jekyll - this book is copyright-protected, but this link gives sources of her books as well as a couple of other of her books that are free & digitalized online.)

No book about fragrant flowers could avoid mentioning pinks (Dianthus species & cultivars) - and Louise Beebe Wilder loved and wrote about them so well -http://openlibrary.org/search?q=Louise+Beebe+Wilder . In this link, sources are given of her books, The Fragrant Path, as well as Adventures in my Garden and Rock Garden, plus a couple of links to two other free, digitalized online books of hers.

I am looking forward to being cooped up by our woodstove this winter and re-reading these books while I wait for spring, and I hope anyone reading this will too.
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oops - forgot to give you this list of Shakespeare's flowers - Especially in a Midsummer Night's Dream, you will find flowers among the fairies - http://www.pnc.edu/cd/garden.html

What's going on with most of our seed swaps? People seem interested but not many folks are signing up. So many of us plan our gardens and start seeds by late January that I have a hard time accepting that it is too early. Postage may be a little more, but compared against the cost of buying seeds vs trading for volume the cost is negligible.
Is there a particular kind of swap we need, or changes we need to make to processes to encourage participation? Even Secret Santa, which has been wildly popular, seems to be down a little.
I've come to enjoy the swaps almost as I do planting so I am up for whatever people are interested in.
Alana

Hello everyone,
I've been reading the posts and wanted to say that the gardenweb traders are some of the most dedicated, generous, and creative people on the planet... so from my perspective its nothing that anyone is doing wrong. For me, the reasons why I probably will not participate in this trade this year have to do with the heat spell last April, not much seed produced in the garden, late maturing because of crazy weather patterns, and just the timing of a crazy year. Looking at the themes, I don't have a lot that I could offer. I guess I just don't want to be a "bad" trader or dead weight in the swap.
Thanks to some wonderful swaps here in the past, my tiny garden is about as full as it can be. I've expanded so much from the new varieties I got from trades here that there doesn't seem to be any more room in my garden for new stuff.
A long winded way of saying "you're all doing more than fine" and to let you know that I've been very very happy with every round robin I've participated in. Sometimes the timing works out well, and other times it just doesn't line up.
Keep up the good work... and hopefully I'll be in next year.
George

I am a newbie, I am not sure I have enough to do much, can I still try?
If I am allowed I promise to send something but may not be able to fill a whole category.

My themes if I am allowed to participate:

1.Peter picked a peck of peppers: Any and all sorts of peppers
2. A man name Herb: Any herbs
3. Can't beat beets: Any beets, especially pale colors
4. Years gone by: annual flowers to brighten up my garden
5. Fruit or Vegetable?: The wonderful tomato, not heirloom I didn't have much luck with those, but everyday varieties including cherry. Yellow, Orange, Green or Red

goodmorning
some players send a shipping lable or write it on a note inside your envie. sorry I forgot to put that in the first post. also dont forget to put your garden web name inside as well.
michelle

I'm thinking about joining, but my garden is more of a hodgepodge of whatever I thought looked nice and would survive. I'm not even sure I can come up with anything creative enough... Drawing a complete blank right now.

Well, I have a few spots that I'd like to fill in, so I'll give it a shot.

This was much more challenging than I thought it would be. I borrowed a few phrases and altered them to suit the theme...

1. I Ain't Afraid of No Shade - Shade loving plants.

2. "All I wanna to do is have some tea." - Plants that can be dried and used in teas.

3. "Mosquito Jean is not my lover. She's just a bug who will not leave me alone. Her biting - I can't condone." - Plants that repell mosquitoes and other pests. (Alright, alright. Writing songs is not my strong point!)

4. Out With the Mulch, In With the Green - Short, non-invasive groundcovers.

5. America the Beautiful - Anything patriotic-colored (red, white, and blue), preferably perennials but annuals will do too. [Not the most creative theme, but this is for a friend whose daughter loves everything patriotic, especially the colors.]

Alana ~ even the signups for the Winterswap 2012 have been down so far.. I'm trying to rally them up. I think maybe it's just been a tough gardening year for everyone? I, too, enjoy the challenge of interesting ideas to try to go thru my seeds and find the ones that 'fit'. :)

4. sandlapperrose
1. Coffee and Cream (name of seed or color: cream, brown or both)
2. Getting Some Zzzz's (sleep, rest, or anything beginning with the letter Z)
3. The Voleminator (We have voles that love to eat all the roots of my plant and kill it - trying to grow more things that won't be tasty to them so probably something deer resistent, etc.)
4. Gnome Sweet Gnome (Gnomes roam in my garden. Asking for cute little plants to join them in the garden.)
5. Dutch Treat (plants that remind you of Holland - name, color, etc.)

5. farmgirl2009
1. Short and Sweet (for a terrace that is in full sun)
2. Sedums it shall be (sprinkler doesn't seem to get this area)
3. Wet feet (pond and surrounding area)
4. Down the garden path (shorter varieties)
5. Along the dry creek (shorter varieties also)

6. primrose1x3
1. [I'm late! I'm late I'm late to the party] Between Disney and my memory, this is more of a garble than a quote from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderful. But the sense of it is 1st theme: flowers that are "late" to the garden; that is, that bide their time through summer festivities and then flower until frost. Dahlias, morning glories and sages come to mind.
2. Although I would be grateful for any late-blooming flower, I would also love some late-flowering blues for shade or partial shade. Some examples could be:

5. Other blues could include any other color with some degree of blue in it, like mauve, lilac, taupe, violet, icy blue, deep blue, slate blue, black purple, etc.

7. drippy
One Singular Sensation - if there was ONE outstanding plant in your garden this year (or last okay too), be it annual, perennial, shrub, vegetable or herb (no full sized - larger than 6' - trees, please) that set seed, I would like from seeds from that. If you haven't been impressed with anything in your garden, that's okay - don't send me anything - I'm not likely to run out of seeds in my lifetime, LOL.

4)Don't Bug Me: My grandpa used to plant different flowers with his veggie crops and around his fruit trees...I don't remember what they were but he said they kept bugs away from his crops...1 of them was gladiolias...i know glads are bulbs but was wondering if there were any other flowers maybe that do the same job and are pretty also...

5)Too Pretty To Eat: Edible plants that are beautiful to look at in bloom or flowers that are edible...these can be things like squash that have big beautiful blooms, okra has pretty flowers, or flowers you can eat like clovers and other flowers that can be eaten.

9. chefconnie
1.Peter picked a peck of peppers: Any and all sorts of peppers
2. A man name Herb: Any herbs
3. Can't beat beets: Any beets, especially pale colors
4. Years gone by: annual flowers to brighten up my garden
5. Fruit or Vegetable?: The wonderful tomato, not heirloom I didn't have much luck with those, but everyday varieties including cherry. Yellow, Orange, Green or Red

10. vajeff
1. I Ain't Afraid of No Shade - Shade loving plants.

2. "All I wanna to do is have some tea." - Plants that can be dried and used in teas.

3. "Mosquito Jean is not my lover. She's just a bug who will not leave me alone. Her biting - I can't condone." - Plants that repell mosquitoes and other pests. (Alright, alright. Writing songs is not my strong point!)

4. Out With the Mulch, In With the Green - Short, non-invasive groundcovers.

5. America the Beautiful - Anything patriotic-colored (red, white, and blue), preferably perennials but annuals will do too. [Not the most creative theme, but this is for a friend whose daughter loves everything patriotic, especially the colors.]

if we don't have any other players, this is it. you can start sending seeds tomorrow. I will send out my address today if you don't get an email by tomorrow post here and I will send it again.
I pulled out my seeds last night, so I'm ready.
michelle

hello everyone
I went through my seeds last night and got them all sorted and labled. I dont like to wait to the last min even if I'm hosting. I'm already to start sorting as soon as they get here.
I love swapping time
michelle

I got my seeds together and will mail later this week. My plants didn't set seeds as well as usual this year - and the voles that ate the plants didn't help any, but I hope you like what I send. I managed to get at least two packs for each person that corresponds to your themes.

Just got my seeds all ready over the weekend...got many packs of seeds for everyone or tried to...there will not be the 20 to 25 seeds in each pack but there will be enough variety for each person in mine to make up for it...there were some seeds that i only had a few of but still wanted to share as they fit the themes...most have a good number of seeds in the packets but there are some that have just a few and some have more than 25...i thought the ones that have just a few would be worth it tho as they are special seeds to me or seeds i had set back to plant this next spring and i would have liked to have had them too if i were on the receiving end...will get them mailed out sometime this week :)

MoonFire - my seeds follow the same rationale as yours - if some packets have small numbers of seeds, it's because they were relevant to a theme but in small numbers to begin with. I'm still cleaning, packing & sorting - hope to mail mine later this week.

May our gardens be as fascinating as pretty...and not become too much more fascinating than pretty and if they do then may the neighbors smile benignly upon our follies.

Don't worry, ladies, I follow that same rule. When something matched the theme and I only sent a few seeds, that was because I sent all that I had. No problem with anyone doing that as far as I'm concerned.
Jeanne

Michelle - I just sent you two emails via your GardenWeb member page, asking for your mailing address (the 2nd one gives you my email address). My seeds are ready to send in, but do need your mailing address.

Hi Michelle...I've had my envelope ready to mail out to you for about a week now...but I'm embarrassed to admit I forgot which Michelle you were as I've got 4 Michelle's addresses from trades...I've went back to our last trade and I think I have your address...please confirm it for me tho so I send it to the right person...you are Michelle Reynolds right?...and is your mailing address the same as it was back when we did our October swap? ...if so I'll get it out shortly :)...thanks, Dianne

Hello
I have been having some computer trouble but am barrouing my hubby's iPad so I can keep in touch. I have not heard from sassy butterfly if you have sent yet, vajeff did you ever receive my address? Moonfire yours should be here soon. All the seeds have been sorted so far, so I'm hopping to get them on their way home before the end of the year.
This is the last run up to Christmas and it is time for me to start baking cookies. What is everyone else up to?

Hi Michelle...I'm sorry I'm so late ...I left the package for one of my daughters to mail out and it didn't get in the mail...I just took it to the mail this morning...I sent it priority so it should get there quicker...I had them weigh it at the po and put enough stamps in the bubbly to send it back at the same weight normal mail...I didn't know if you'd need more postage than that...if so please don't put yourself out if the postage isn't enough...thanks so much Michelle and thanks for hosting this :)...confirmation tracking # is 0311 3260 0000 7255 0445 ...I got one just because i'm so late mailing out...

I also got the Christmas card you sent!!! Wasn't expecting it at all but it did put a big smile on my face, especially since this last week has been a long stressful week...thanks for the friendship, Dianne

My seeds arrived today. Thanks so much, everyone! I will have fun looking up pictures of some on the computer. It's always nice to receive seed surprises!
Thanks for you hard work as hostess, too, Michelle.
Jeanne

I got my seeds today too and hubby and I were like kids in a candy store going thru them all lol...now I gotta google some of them too and see how to grow them but they all sound so pretty and awesome...and the variety of tomatoes i got is awesome too...also i love marigolds but had no clue there were so many different types of them...there's also some seeds i've not heard of before i gotta check out...thanks ALL of you and super great job Michelle putting them all together!!

Received my seeds today..wow, what a wonderful selection! Much thanks to all of you fantastic gardeners, can't wait to start planting!! Michelle you were a great host and thank you for all your work. :)

I received my lovely selection of seeds in today's mail. I am so glad I asked for "One Singular Sensation" - you all have some very nice thoughts on this, and I can't wait to try them out. I found it interesting that 2 different players claimed gorgeous red hollyhocks as their outstanding plants. I have a perfect place for hollyhocks, which tend to do very well in this area, and am excited about adding these to my garden.

Thank you, Michelle - I know first-hand these swaps are not easy to host, and I appreciate your hard work!

Received my seeds January 4, while my 'pooter was crashed, but all is well today, so thank you Michelle for all your hard work and everyone for such a generous, unusual collection. Now, if only winter would show up so I can start wintersowing some of these. 67*F expected in a couple of days here - at least the mosquitoes have not shown up:)

Well, I'm stoked now. I've been so busy that I haven't had a decent time to sit down and look at all of these seeds until last night. There were several that left me completely clueless, so they were Googled. Lots of surprises! Some of these are perfect candidates for winter sowing, I believe, and so they'll be sprouting soon enough! Lisa is going to love her patriotic garden.

Thank you, everyone, for the fantastic seeds! Michelle, you did a great job!